DxD 0058: Destruction Vs Immortality (1/2)

Riser looked at her condescendingly before saying, “You wound me, my dear Rias.” He said as he let the two whips of destruction energy hit his body to show her how hopeless her situation was.

With Rias’ attack, Riser’s entire arm from below his shoulder was destroyed, “This is all you can do, Rias. You might as well just give up and obediently become Riser’s bride.” Riser said condescendingly as his arm regrew almost instantly.

Rias didn’t give up as she attacked him multiple times and Riser let most of her attacks hit him, only moving a little bit to not get hit in his vitals since regenerating his vitals was going to take more energy.

He chuckled with derision, “Resign, Rias. You’re about to become my bride.” This time, when Rias attacked, Riser countered her with his flames, “I’ve already read through your moves. Checkmate.”

“Don’t make me laugh,” Rias said angrily, releasing even more attacks in Riser’s direction, uncaring of her reserves of energy, “I, the king, am still standing!”

“You leave me no choice then.” Riser said as he created a massive magic circle in front of him to channel his power. Seeing his preparation, Rias didn’t dally and created a magic circle in front of herself that would help her channel her power of Destruction.

“Fire.” He said and a massive beam of Phoenix fire was released in Rias’ direction who quickly countered it with her Destruction energy.

“Shouldn’t Rias’ Destruction energy instantly destroy anything that touches it?” Tsubaki questioned.

“It’s not that simple. The power of Destruction is extremely strong, but it has its own limits. Those limits are its density and how refined it is. The power of Destruction that Rias casts is like an uncontrolled flame, raw and unconnected. This makes it susceptible to demonic energy of high concentration. She’s been training her control, but it takes time.” Abaddon explained.

“So that’s why your energy seems much more in control, almost like when I cast water magic…” Sona said.

“Yeah. Control is something that takes a long time when it comes to the power of Destruction. It’s unprecedentedly unruly and needs to be kept in check. Otherwise, it will be the same as Rias’ situation where the fire or anything with concentrated energy is able to counter her just due to how easy it is to break the chain of her Destruction energy.” Abaddon’s words shed some light on how the power of Destruction works.

In their confrontation of powers, Rias wasn’t at a disadvantage, but she wasn’t able to gain anything on Riser either.

“Do you see how hopelessly weak you truly are, Rias?” Riser’s taunts hadn’t stopped. He was attacking Rias both physically and mentally, “You have one of the strongest powers in the underworld. The power of the house of Bael. They were ranked at the top of the 72 pillars in the past and even now with merely 32 houses left, they are at the top. But you can’t do anything with such power at your fingertips.”

“You will not break my spirit, Riser.” Rias’ words conveyed her indomitable will as she tried to put into practice what Abaddon had taught her and tried to concentrate her power together. Instead of increasing her output, she utilized more control and did her best to make the power penetrate through Riser’s flames.

She screamed as her mental power was being overexerted while trying to compress the power that escaped from the magic circle that she was using to channel the power.

“I will never become one of your whores, Riser!” Rias screamed as her power penetrated through Riser’s flames and quickly reached him before he could even react.

Everything came to a halt as Riser’s spell was canceled and he was nowhere to be seen. Rias was left panting as she waited for the dust to settle, Rias had a victorious smile on her face as she was sure that Riser’s reserves were far from enough from allowing him to recreate almost his entire body after than intense confrontation they just had.

“I’m impressed, my dear Rias…” Riser’s nonchalant voice made Rias’ expression turn into a frown. It wasn’t just her, but Abaddon and Sona’s expressions also changed.

“He should be done…” Abaddon’s eyes narrowed as a dangerous light flashed in them. He had an ominous premonition. “I agree…” Sona said. Tsubaki could only look at Sona with an inquisitive expression as she couldn’t understand how they were able to judge Riser’s reserves.

Sona explained to her, “That concentrated torrent of fire was already something that should’ve completely emptied out his reserves if we look at his previous games. Especially after he let Rias get so many hits on him. Under any circumstances, he should’ve been out of energy, which should’ve resulted in him being eliminated after being hit by Rias’ full-powered attack.”

“He shouldn’t have had nearly enough energy to regenerate his entire body after that. Something’s wrong.” Abaddon’s voice was flat, he wasn’t worried yet since he knew that Rias had more fight in her.

“You really are a damn cockroach, aren’t you Riser…” Rias said annoyedly as she recovered her breath.

“I love the fight in you, Rias. The feisty ones are the best…” Rias’ revealed a perverted expression as he disappeared from his spot.

Just as Rias prepared for an ambush from him, she heard a scream from behind her. It was Asia, “Go to hell!” Rias shouted and quickly attacked Riser who had grabbed Asia’s neck. Sadly for her, Riser had already eliminated Asia as the attack hit him.

Half of his torso was destroyed by Rias’ attack but Riser didn’t seem perturbed as he regenerated again, “A Bishop with Twilight healing is a nuisance that I’m not interested in dealing with.” Riser’s words infuriated Rias even more as she resumed her barrage of attacks on him.

“I’m going in,” Abaddon said as his suspicion kept growing when he saw Riser seeming far stronger than he should’ve been.

“How?” Sona asked him.

“I left a backdoor to enter the arena in case Rias lost the fight. I was going to challenge Riser for Rias’ hand in single combat in that case.” Abaddon told Sona as he cast a teleportation circle.

“How you could sneak through the Strongest Queen’s senses is beyond me…” Sona was impressed by Abaddon’s magical capabilities.

“I’m just that good…” Pride was oozing out of Abaddon’s words as he gave Sona a wink right as he disappeared.

…

Meanwhile in an unknown location in the underworld.

“Rias is much stronger than we gave her credit for…” A hulking man was viewing the broadcast that was being managed by Sona said.

“It’s not enough… Though Riser seems to be stronger than he should’ve been too…” A woman who was standing beside him said. She was wearing a typical maid costume and her luscious silver hair went down her waist.

“Yeah… Hm?” The man sensed something, “Why is he in there Grayfia?” He asked his companion.

“It seems that be slipped a trace past me, Sirzechs-sama,” Grayfia said with embarrassment.

“Well… He isn’t the strongest in the younger generation without any merit. Though could you fetch him out of there? I don’t want anything interfering with the fight between them until it’s over. I will support him in getting single combat against Riser, but interfering in a Rating game is unacceptable.” Sirzechs said.

“Understood,” Grayfia said as a teleportation circle appeared under her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” An unexpected presence appeared in the room as both Sirzechs and Grayfia’s powers flared, “Who?!” Sirzech’s voice took a depth unheard of before as he called out.

“Calm your tits, Lucifer…” The man said in an almost mocking tone as he appeared in front of Grayfia and Sirzechs. At the same time, all of the thick demonic energy that they both had released disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

“Zekram Bael…” Sirzechs said in an apprehensive tone. There was a very tiny number of people that he was apprehensive of and Zekram Bael was one of them.

“Let’s not interfere in my lovely descendent’s situation, okay? Let him take care of his own fights without the presence of us old fogies.” Abaddon’s ancestor smiled as he nodded in greeting to Grayfia.

“Is that all you’re here for?” Sirzechs said in a dumbfounded tone.

“Why else? Abaddon is such a nice kid and when he asked me to make sure that no one interfered in his fight, I couldn’t refuse.” Zekram shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he took a seat on one of the couches to view the broadcast, “Let’s watch a nice show, shall we? I’m sure you won’t try to interfere in the fight behind my back…” Zekram smiled harmlessly at Sirzechs.

Both Sirzechs and Grayfia were speechless at his naked threat and could only agree to keep sitting.

“And I’m sure that you won’t regret not interfering. This fight was over at the moment when your sister, I forget her name, beat the Phenex kid for the first time.” Zekram’s words were cryptic as neither Sirzechs nor Grayfia understood them. In the end, they both stayed quiet and allowed the following events to continue unimpeded.