บท 156: Rias vs Alex 2/2

When Akeno arrived at their base to help protect Asia and Gasper, she was completely dumbfounded by what she saw. The entire area was covered in darkness, and all sorts of creatures found only in nightmares had appeared. If she hadn't felt this aura before, Akeno would have thought it was some kind of attack, and that Gasper and Asia were in actual danger. She landed next to Asia, who had backed away from the giant beast in the center of the darkness, and asked,

"What's going on, where's Gasper?" Asia looked confused at Akeno's question, and seemed to not know how to answer it. She then pointed at the giant beast and said,

"Um, Alex said he might take Valerie from him, and Gasper turned into that." When she heard Asia's words Akeno's mind blanked for a second, before she put the pieces together and calmed down a little. Normally she might think Alex was serious about taking Valerie, but given the current situation it was possible Alex simply wanted to activate Gasper's balance breaker. She then realized, if they were to gain an advantage on Alex, this might be her best chance. With the power coming from Gasper, it might be possible.

Though it broke her heart to turn her attacks on her beloved(and master), Akeno also knew Alex wouldn't want her to hold back against him. She spread her eight fallen angel wings, a number that she used to require the braclets from Azazel for, but was now able to use on her own, and summoned holy lightning that started condensing into a different form. Soon four dragons made of holy lightning joined the ranks of dark monsters, as they all started closing in on the scale mail form Alex.

Under his armor, Alex was grinning like a madman when he saw the efforts both Gasper and Akeno were making against him. He then used his magic and summoned a storm of fire around him, that started changing form immediately after. Before with his 'fire manipulation' skill, Alex was only able to imitate simple creatures like serpents. Now however, since the skill evolved into 'fire mastery' he was able to put a bit more creativity into his flames, as all manner of beasts started emerging from the flames, such as wolves, bears, and tigers. As a counter to Akeno's holy lightning Dragons, he even threw in his own flame dragons above him. After this the armies of monsters converged on each other.

The audience was watching with excitement in their eyes as they saw both sides create an entire army to use in battle. Though the use of familiars was limited, these were beings that were created using individual powers so they weren't considered the same thing. It was a scene of pure hell, as monsters made of fire fended off creatures made of darkness and dragons made of fire and lightning raged, with the background being pure darkness with fire raging, and with every passing moment the audience grew even more excited.

Alex stood in the center of all of this and watched the carnage around him with a calm expression(though no one could tell under the helmet). He then turned his gaze to Gasper and Akeno themselves, who were both staying in the background. Though Gasper was stronger in his current form while also being surrounded by darkness, he didn't even try to delude himself into thinking he could take on Alex in close combat. However he didn't try to run away when he saw Alex slowly start making his way over to him. Instead he simply summoned more monsters from the darkness to attack Alex, and hopefully wear him down a little.

Alex simply continued walking, seemingly not noticing all the mayhem around him, both Ravel and Elmenhilde had long since took flight, watching for any signs of physical or magical sneak attacks. As the fresh wave of monsters attacked him, he simply summoned the holy sword Ascalon, and cut his way through them with the swords holy light.

Gasper continued to summon an endless legion of monsters in a desperate attempt to tire Alex, and Akeno summoned yet more lightning dragons as hers were defeated by Alex's fire dragons, yet it was obvious they were tiring out instead. As Alex swept his sword through the horde of endless monsters, he cleared a path to Gasper. Having accomplished getting him to acquire balance breaker, Alex decided to wrap up the fight and rushed straight for Gasper. Since he was surrounded by the darkness, Alex decided not to leave his attacks to chance.

The sacred gear shouted, as Alex's punch tore through Gaspers darkness to reach him. Though the power of the darkness covering him should have protected him against physical attacks, Gasper felt an intense pain as Alex's punch drove into him, and dispelled his balance breaker form. Soon all the darkness disappeared, leaving Gasper gasping for air with Alex's fist buried in his stomach. His balance breakers activation seemed to have undone his female transformation, as he was now the hulking muscular figure instead of being in the form he usually took. Ignoring the dumbstruck Akeno, Alex leaned over and whispered into Gasper's ear,

"You know, Valerie was watching all of that, and even though you lost you looked pretty manly and reliable. But you might want to repeat your confession to her personally." After hearing Alex's words Gasper smiled as his consciousness faded. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes later was Valerie's smiling face.

After Gasper retired, Alex turned towards the remaining two from the other side, Akeno and Asia. He didn't like the idea of attacking either girl, and had an idea a second later. When Akeno saw his smile, she couldn't help but shiver, and wondered if she accidentally awoke a monster she shouldn't have with her interests, which ended up only making her more excited.

***

Elsewhere on the island each of the different battles were continuing. Kiba and Lint were having a high speed battle through the jungle, he was only using the holy swords as With 'Incinerate Anthem' Lint had the best counter to his demonic swords. This didn't handicap him much though, as he was able to use his dragon knights as compensation. This allowed him to use another ability though, 'Dragon Knights of the Holy Priest', it was something he intended to save for Alex, but he didn't appear to have the luxury of waiting.

After breaking away from Lint a bit, the dragon Knights started glowing before they vanished, replaced instead by various pieces of armor that equipped themselves onto his body. He then turned towards Lint, and sped at her at speeds he would never reach normally. Lint defended against a few of his attacks, before backing up as well, and said,

"Wow you get a lot stronger like that, maybe I should get serious as well?" At her words three figures covered in purple flames appeared, before they combined to form one giant angelic figure. After activating her subspecies balance breaker, their battle continued once more.

***

Xenovia was panting heavily as her battle with Vasco Strada continued. Though the scabbard of Excalibur made her near invulnerable, it didn't grant her unlimited stamina. What frustrated her most was how Strada, who had been returned to the age where he was at his peak, seemed like he was just warming up. Irina was off to the side, but seemed annoyed at how she couldn't settle with Xenovia. Strada looked at Xenovia with joy, as she seemed a very capable successor, and said to her,

"Seeing how strong the new generation is makes this old man proud, but there is always someone better. Since after this match we won't be on conflicting teams anymore, how about I give you a bit of training to help you with the future?" Xenovia was dumbfounded by the old mans offer, she fighting seriously against him, and yet he was offering to help her get stronger. She felt both honored at receiving personal training and indignant at her opponent treating her this way, which Strada seemed to notice, and said,

"Well let's talk about that later, for right now let's continue our fight." Xenovia looked up at his words and nodded, the two then continued their fight while Irina watched.

***

Koneko flew over the ocean towards their base after she managed to successfully seal Serafall Leviathan in one of the jewels Alex had given her, for when they were needed. She had cold sweat running down her back the entire time, and was glad they had a pre prepared way to distract her so Koneko could get the jump on her. They had asked Sona to help by making a VERY dirty video of herself, then distracted her by playing it. Though she was very against making such a thing, Sona was also interested in contributing to her sisters defeat, and eventually agreed as long as the video didn't play publicly and was destroyed afterwards.

In order to do so they made a pre made magic circle on a piece of paper, and gave it to the one they hoped Serafall would be sent at, Ingvild. The design of the spell was to envelope the target in mist while the video played, ensuring Sona's privacy. While Serafall enjoyed the video Sona made just for her, Koneko snuck up and managed to seal her. When they thought about it, and the fact it worked, it seemed like a very sad way to lose. As Koneko arrived at the shore where their base was, and was also close to where the formation being made to trap Alex was supposed to made, she became completely dumbfounded at what she saw.

Alex was sitting in the middle of their base with both Ravel and Elmenhilde standing behind him, they both seemed to have similar expressions to hers at what Alex was doing though. Not too far away was Asia, who was tied up as a prisoner since Alex didn't want to actually attack her. Akeno was also tied up, but in a very different fashion as Alex smacked her butt.

SMACK

"Who's your master?"

"..."

SMACK

"I asked you a question, who's your master?"

"...You are."

"Good girl, you deserve a reward."

SMACK

Koneko would've entirely believed Alex was trying to humiliate Akeno while this happened, if it wasn't for the fact that Akeno was panting slightly and had very red cheeks. Though she couldn't move much, Akeno then wiggled her butt a little, as if asking Alex to smack it again.

SMACK

"That's for trying to attack your master, oh hello Koneko!" As if Alex just noticed her arrival, he called out to her, giving Koneko the brief feeling she needed to cover her own butt to protect it. When Alex saw her hands twitch towards her butt he frowned, and said,

"You don't have to worry, I'm just reteaching Akeno what this signifies." While fingering the collar she still wore. There was so much Koneko wanted to retort at, but left it for later since she realized she was surrounded by enemies. Before she could say anything though,

"Rias Gremory rook retired."

The announcement that Rossweise was defeated rang out, and Roygun appeared a few moments later looking a little beat up. Alex looked her up and down, to which she said,

"That wand made her a little stronger than I thought, but I put a kink in their plans. She was working on some kind of large scale seal when I arrived, it looked like it had both light and anti dragon properties. I already destroyed it though." Hearing this Koneko started sweating even more, as it meant that there was no way to hold Alex when Ingvild finished her attack at any moment. Alex nodded then looked out over the ocean, wondering where Serafall was, especially since he didn't hear any retirement announcements regarding their area. He then turned towards Koneko who just returned from there, and asked,

"What happened with Serafall?" She just kept her mouth shut, not wanting to say anything if it'll help keep Alex there until Ingvild finished. Akeno however,

"If Koneko's here then the plan we made to seal her worked." Everyone turned towards her in surprise, prompting her to continue,

"We made a video with Sona's help and used it to distract her, while that happened Koneko sealed her into one of the jewels you gave her." Koneko looked at Akeno in indignation at her betrayal, then noticed everyone looking at her. Alex smiled as the three women around him got into ready positions, and he said,

"Get her."

***

Not even ten minutes later Koneko was tied up next to Asia, while a certain sound rang through the air.

SMACK

Alex was "rewarding" Akeno for spilling the beans, while a peeved Serafall fumed at the side. She was frustrated that she was sealed, but the thing that made her the angriest,

"I can't believed you interrupted the video I was watching, it's not everyday I get an amazing view of my darling Son-tan masturbating while crying out for her big sister!💕" Sadly for Sona, Serafall decided to loudly mention what the video was about, certainly shaming her in front of the entire world in the process. Alex smiled at the peeved Maou, when suddenly a soft rumble was heard, and the edge of the ocean started to rise.

As the tsunami roared towards the coast Ingvild flew above it as if to directly guide the massive wave. As she was still learning to control her powers it took quite a bit of time to prepare this massive amount of water, but now it moved like an unstoppable force towards the exact place Alex was. He smiled at the sight, and stood to fight the wall of water. He had dematerialized his helmet and gauntlets while messing with Akeno, but swiftly wore them again as the voice rang out,

The small sphere of energy Alex had formed in his hand became like a miniature sun, as he shot it towards the horizon in a line. The raw power in his attack not only dispersed the massive wave with ease, but also punched a hole into the dimensional gap as well, as he effectively destroyed the attack Ingvild so painstakingly launched. The announcement soon rang out,

"Rias Gremory pawn retired."

Hearing that Alex started sweating a little, and hoped he didn't hurt Ingvild too much. With that he looked around, Akeno, Asia, and Koneko were all caught; Gasper, Rossweise, and Ingvild were all retired; that left Xenovia, Kiba, and Rias herself. As he thought about this he turned towards the peak of the island mountain, where one could barely see and hear the signs of battle happening. He then sent a message to Grayfia through the system, telling her it was time to finish the match.

***

The system beeped in front of Grayfia, and she registered her new orders before turning her attention back to Rias. Though Rias was the one that was obviously on the losing side, both girls were pretty tattered by now with the battle against each other. Even though she was superior, Grayfia couldn't help but admire how far Rias had come recently, though it was time to end the battle. With the permission she received from Alex along with his orders, she secretly promoted to queen, and the aura coming off of her multiplied as she stared Rias down.

"It's time for this fight to end Rias, three of your pieces are retired, three are captured, and the other two are still fighting. Either concede defeat, or I'll retire you myself." Rias sighed at Grayfia's words, and replied,

"I already gave up against Vali, I won't do so twice. I know it may look bad for me, but I'll fight to the bitter end this time." Grayfia nodded, proud of Rias's determination, as the two faced off once more. Several minutes later,

"The King Rias Gremory has retired, the Red Dragon Emperor wins!"