บท 98: Pacts

A few days after the hot spring trip Alex was in the training area with the rest of the Gremory group, sparring against Kiba, Xenovia, Koneko, and Rosswiesse all at one time. Alex had long since stopped keeping track of how much gravity he placed on himself, and kept it at a point to limit himself to what he perceived was about ten percent of his real strength. As a result the combination of the others was showing quite well, he used his staff to fend off the attacks of the sword users Kiba and Xenovia, answered Koneko's senjutsu attacks with his own ki reinforcement attacks, and Rosswiesse's spells with his own.

He was focusing on having to fight multiple opponents with different fighting styles, to better his own multitasking. He was also surprised at the progress they were all making, Kiba was further outnumbering Alex by using his drag knights equipped with the swords he got from Seig. Xenovia was trying to master the new ex-durandal, that has been improved with Excalibur ruler after Arthur gave it to her during what was now called the demonic beast riot. Koneko's strength and senjutsu control had improved greatly after her growth spurt, and after a couple training sessions with Kuroka had started to use minor youjutsu spells. Rosswiesse was using the defensive spells she recently learned while in Asgard to their full effect while also spamming elemental spells at him.

The thing that was annoying to all four of them was that while they seemed to be somewhat at an advantage they were still unable to corner him, that and the fact that they knew he was limiting his strength and could wipe them out easily if he really tried. A little ways away was Rias and Akeno sparring as well. After the scolding she received from Alex when she thought he died, Rias was doing everything she could to get stronger. Though he didn't treat her like it, she was his servant, and if she couldn't support him properly then there was no use for her.

After a while of this they wrapped up the training, Akeno and Rias drew a draw due to the fact that Rias couldn't use her most powerful destruction moves, and Alex simply decide to fight back and wiped the floor with them. Once he was done he looked over to the side and saw Ravel, who was writing something down like she was taking notes about their training. Rias then called for all of her peerage to gather, and Asia and Gasper who were providing assistance with water and such came over. When she heard Rias, Ravel however took off on her own, leaving Alex to once again wonder what she was up to. Once they gathered she then said,

"After this we're all going to the club room, and we're going to meet with the head of the magicians association about forming pacts with magicians. Though due to some circumstances I would like you all to wait a few weeks before making any pacts." They were all confused, but nodded their heads at their kings words. Alex had discussed it with Rias and they decided to wait until some of the work in Asora was done before explaining the situation to them. As such it would be troublesome if they formed pacts that lasted until after he planned to leave, unless it was with a magician that would be going with them, but he doubted that.

Though the current situation didn't involve him, Alex decided to go with them to meet the magician association head. They gathered in the ORC clubroom and were discussing the possibilities of being contracted with magicians, though the main ones benefitting are the magicians, Devils did pacts as a form of business. Suddenly a magic circle appeared and a holographic image of a man with red and blue hair with matching eyes appeared. He turned to Rias and said,

"Ah lady Rias, you are becoming a beautiful woman like your mother, how are you?" Rias smiled at the man and said,

"Thank you for the compliment, lord Mephisto Pheles, and I have been well." The two exchanged pleasantries before Azazel arrived and took his attention. Once the talk got back on track he then said,

"Sorry for taking a while, I'll transfer the application forms to you now lady Rias." Once he said that another magic circle appeared and a giant stack of papers dropped from it. When they moved that one another stack replaced it, then another. Finally they stopped and his said,

"Those were the applicants for lady Rias, I'll now send the ones for the rook Rosswiesse." At his words everyone became stunned before, yet more papers started falling. Then they had to go through a similar process for each of the members. It was obvious that there were people the magicians wanted more than others, the order went Rias, Rosswiesse, Asia, Kiba, akeno, Xenovia, Koneko, then finally Gasper with the least. The reason was because as a king Rias would have many people wanting to form a good relationship with her, plus they believed there would be extra benefits.

"Now then I'll start transferring the red dragons as well." Mephisto said, stunning Alex before the largest stack of papers yet started falling. His brow twitched at the nearly endless stack of paper, before it finally stopped after several minutes. Everyone else was stunned as well, and they turned to look at Mephisto who shrugged and said,

"Of course there's a lot looking to form a pact with you, you beat every opponent in the youth Devils rating games that you went against by yourself, and then single handedly ended an event that terrorized the entire underworld. I'd be surprised if any of the youth Devils of their peerage got more applicants than you." Alex shook his head and said,

"I'll inform you now, I'm not planning to form a pact with any magicians, now or in the future." As he said this Alex recalled issei made a pact with Le Fay, and she would probably be the only one he could make one, if he wanted to, with as well since she'll most likely leave in the future with the Vali team. Mephisto shrugged again and said,

"Well the applications are there if you changed your mind. With this the only one left who I haven't contacted is lady Sona, but she wants to wait until her new peerage members are decided." Then Mephisto looked around a bit as if he was looking for someone, and asked,

"Is the lady of Phoenix house present? I have something I would like to warn her about."

"No she isn't, but I could pass whatever you need to warn her about." When Alex thought about what Mephisto wanted to say, he briefly recalled there being a part where Ravel, Koneko, and Gasper where kidnapped in the series at one point. He suddenly cursed himself as he didn't remember much about that point in the series, except that it had something to do with Phoenix tears. Mephisto nodded as he recalled Alex was her fiancé, and explained,

"This is top secret, but It appeared that remnants of the Khaos brigade are coming into contact with members of the Phoenix house, and there have been reports of Phoenix tears being sold on the black market. We've investigated this and found that they were counterfeits, but they're working almost as well as the original. Take care of your woman red dragon." With that Mephisto disappeared and the magician pact meeting came to an end.