-----Lilu Flauros-----
-----Training Field, Flauros Estate-----
"In that case, Riser accepts."
I'd have preferred that the purple-haired bomber bimbo kept her fucking mouth shut about the Valefor connection since it would've resolved the whole Rias x Riser fiasco in the quickest, likely cleanest manner possible. But I'll make do.
In any event, I lead Riser and his Peerage to a random Training Field, then I activate [Instance Dungeon Creation] to throw together a Rating Game-themed Dungeon. It's basically just a Dungeon that works exactly like a Rating Game, same rules and everything.
You get killed in the Rating Game, you get tossed out fully healed. Actually, I'm pretty sure that makes it superior since injuries sustained in Rating Games need to be healed by medical technicians and there's the possibility of actually dying for real in Rating Games. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's that exact fact that convinced Rias to forfeit to Riser OTL because he was about to kill Issei.
Anyways, with the portal generated, I step inside with Riser and co. close behind. We're then both teleported to our own "prep" rooms where we're given a chance to do some things that you normally couldn't do in Rating Games. Contestant-based customization.
Normally, the layout and conditions of the Rating Game would be decided on by a committee and none of the contestants would have any information about the layout prior to entering the game. While that's mostly still the case here, there's a small caveat.
The type of Rating Game that my Dungeon Creation is setting up creates a 3-section Map. The two sections on either end are decided by the respective player to give themselves home-field advantage while the middle section is randomized. *It's based on a game I heard of in my last life, but cannot for the life of me remember the name of.
Looking through the options presented, and taking the capabilities of myself and my Peerage into consideration, I choose the Haunted Forest layout. Basically a heavily fogged up forest where the trees grow close with thick foliage obscuring any aerial observation. Considering that Io's a Dhampir with a close connection to Nature thanks to being a descendant of Quetzalcoatl, this layout favors her greatly. Not to mention Luvia's a Master Elven Archer who will take to this environment like a fish to water.
Then there's Jack, Cain, and Hanzo. Assassins who favor poor-visibility environments like this. Arata should also be fine. I know that she's not really Mizuki Yukikaze, but the resemblance is uncanny. Not to mention that her division of Church exorcists were essentially Taimanin expies, so she should be able to handle herself in such an environment. If not, I'll have Hanzo train her in her Shinobi Arts.
Welcome to the Unofficial Rating Game between Lilu Flauros and Riser Phenex!
Game Mode:
Team Deathmatch
(Eliminate Enemy Team. Defeat/Resignation of the King equals Instant Loss!)
Terrain:
Riser Phenex has chosen: Scorched Plateau!
Lilu Flauros has chosen: Haunted Forest!
Middle Section decided at random: Wet Savannah!**
Suddenly, my Peerage and I are transported to our base. A relatively small fortified keep. Naturally, Riser spawned in at an identical keep in his zone. Sitting upon my throne, I take a quick look around.
It seems that the map generation creates stylized decorations to denote each party's home base since I'm sitting on an obsidian throne with skeletal motifs and skull-shaped hand grips at the ends of the arms. The room is light by what appear to be Baleful Braziers from Warhammer Fantasy or something. Not to mention the literal fountain of blood in the middle of the room.
"Well ladies, here's what I'm thinking." I then lay out my general idea of a plan and deployment strategy.
-----Riser Phenex-----
Sitting upon this extremely comfortable throne, I must admit that I'm rather tempted to see if Lilu can make me something identical to take home. It's rather suited to my taste, a regal throne with cushions and a back rest of red cotton, the gilded motifs, it's perfect. Not to mention the prominent Phoenix spreading it's wings atop the throne as its central decal.
The rest of the room is also rather befitting of a Phenex such as myself. A number of braziers with gilded Phoenix's set in them, bathing them in fire and shining a most splendid golden-orange hue across the room. The flawless ruby eyes of each of the statues.
The only thing that's really unusual is the twin paths of burning coals with open flames coming up them lining the main walkway leading from the entrance of the throne room up to the throne itself. Unusual, but oddly pleasing to me.
Taking a moment to review the strange game-like screen that seems to be serving as a stand-in for an announcer or referee, I ponder my next move. I must admit that I'm rather pleased with the notion of being able to select my starting zone's theme since it grants me a greater degree of control over my strategy, but I'm also concerned since the same holds true for Lilu.
Then there's the middle zone. A Wet Savannah. Grassy plains, trees are few and far between, a mostly flat, even zone that promotes open battle with little to no room for stealth or deception. That wouldn't normally be a problem, except that it's also a natural flood plain, which means it's liable to be muddy and covered in thick, viscous muck.
That will severely hamper any ground-based actions that can take place there, which doesn't bode well for most of my Peerage. Sure, we're all Devils and know how to fly, but some of the girls just aren't really cut out for it. The Nekomata twins are especially troublesome in that regard given how much they struggle with flying.
So, with flying not being a universal option and ground-based combat non-viable in the middle zone, I make a decision. I order Ile, Nel, Ni, and Li to stay and guard the base. Then I order Xuelan and Mihae to hang back as support for them. I have Karlamine and Isabella take Marion, Burent, Shuriya, and Mira with them to secure the perimeter between our home zone and the middle zone. I also order Ravel to be on standby to support either group as needed.
"Now then Lilu. What will you do?"
A considerable amount of time passes with no reports of movement from the girls, which indicates that Lilu's apparently adopting a defensive strategy. I don't recall the system stating there being any time limit, but surely we can't do this all day?
Responding to Contestant: Riser Phenex's query!
The Law of Time governing the Dungeon has been altered by the will of Lilu Flauros!
The time scale is set to 1:999 which means that for every 999 seconds inside the Dungeon, 1 second will pass in the outside world!
Is this a joke?! Ah, I see. So that's what happened. I thought I sensed a shift in Lilu's presence and power, a most dramatic one at that, since we parted ways following the assassination attempt at Original Sin, but that was barely two weeks ago.
If Lilu's been utilizing such obscene time dilation to train all this time, he's liable to have made monstrous gains in a seemingly short time frame. He could in the course of a year attain nearly a millennium's worth of gains and crush his enemies with power that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Hmm, it may be worth trying to see about getting access to these Dungeons. Anyone who takes the Rating Game scene seriously would kill for the amount of extra training time they could get out of this.
Suddenly, Mira sends me a magical message. "Lord Riser! We're seeing signs of movement in the savannah! It's- It's- An army of skeletal monsters!"
What?
Oh. OH. Right. Gaap. Necromancy. Damn it. Lilu was stalling for time to summon an army of undead to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. This could be problematic. Still, they shouldn't be able to cross the savannah with any decent speed to the all of the mud.
"My King, should I go and clear out this unsightly rabble?" Asks Yubelluna. It's true that with her explosion magic, she could wipe out scores of undead, but...
"No Yubelluna. I suspect that may be exactly what Lilu wants from us. The undead are almost certainly disposable pawns that he can throw at us without end to wear us down and weaken us. No, if we're to seize victory, we must cut the head off of the snake."
With that, I rise from my thrown and order the "home team" to join me as we go to group up with the recon team. Once we arrive at the edge of the plateau, I see why Mira sounded so concerned. "That. Is a large number of skeletons."
It truly is. Most of them appear to be regular skeletons wielding rusty iron weapons. Some of them appear to be equipped with bows and arrows though. Then there's the towering colossi that seem to be the result of multiple skeletons coming together to form a hulking brute. Most concerningly are the extremely emaciated-looking skeletal mages in the fancy robes hanging out in the rear. They appear to be adopting a role of leadership over the other skeletons.
I feel like if we try to fly over the army, those mages would pepper the sky with magic and try to blast us out of the air. This could be annoying. Note to self. If ever I face Lilu in an official Rating Game, blitz his fucking castle before he summons a Satan's be damned army of chaff that's capable of making a nuisance of itself like this.
"Wait for them to cross the savannah and begin scaling the plateau. Use the high ground to obstruct them and strike them down while they're ascending. Riser shall go after Lilu."
With that, I spread my flame wings and fly over the savannah. Contrary to my speculation, the skeletal mages let me pass unimpeded. Perhaps they feel that it's not worth wasting magic power on trying to eliminate a single target at altitude? Or they're intelligent enough to recognize me and know how futile it is to waste mana trying to eliminate me.
Of course it's at that point that everything goes sideways. All of a sudden, the skeleton's cease their unending march and seem to be waiting for something. The sudden collapse of the part of the plateau where my Peerage was assembled would be a solid guess as to what that something would be.
Out of the ground then emerges a massive stone golem with a small pink haired witch with large breasts riding atop it. "Hello ladies! My name's Jin Lanfen. A Bishop in service to Lord Flauros! And one day, I'm going to be the strongest magician to ever have lived! Witness my power and tremble before my might! Ha ha ha!"
Ravel is the first to recover from the shock of the situation owing to her Phenex Immortality Magic as she takes to the air and tries to fry the witch.
"Oh? You want a flame war?! I'll give you a flame war!" Jin responds as she summons a number of fireballs, ice spears, wind blades, and stone bullets and fires them at Ravel.
Then out of the hole formed by the formation of the golem comes two more women. One of them being Lady Halphas herself.
The one with the weird hat is the first to speak. "I am Chloe! Knight of Lilu Flauros! Are there any among you who dare to face me in a duel?!" She asks as she draws a sword from her back. Then Karlamine steps forward while drawing her sword.
"Well met Knight of Flauros! I am Karlamine. A Knight in service to Lord Riser Phenex! I accept your challenge!" As she finishes saying that, the two Knights charge each other and lock swords.
Then Siris walks up towards Lady Halphas. "Lady Halphas I presume? I have heard that you serve as the second Knight of Lord Flauros. In that case, I, Siris, a Knight in service to my Liege, Riser Phenex, would request a duel with you as well."
Lady Halphas seems to consider this for a moment before nodding. "Well, truthfully I wanted to exchange pointers with the Chinese Rook over there, but I suppose I can use this time to brush up on my swordplay. Very well, I am Hildegard Halphas. Heir of the noble Halphas Clan and a Knight in service of Lilu Flauros! Show me what you can do Knight of Phenex!"
Lady Halphas wished to "exchange pointers" with Xuelan? Oh, right. I recall hearing something about her being a practitioner of martial arts, so that makes sense.
Looking around, I don't see any more surprise visitors, which suggests that Lilu's holding back his Pawns, Rooks, and his second Bishop. While I try to recall the information about his Peerage, Mihae shrieks in pain and alarm as she suddenly has an arrow sticking out of her chest.
Shit! Lilu's other Bishop's that hot Elven archer! "Get to cover! The other Bishop's an Elven archer! She'll pick you off out in the open!"
The girls respond swiftly to my warning and split up to seek out cover. Only there isn't hardly any cover in the savannah, so where the hell did that arrow come from?
-----Lilu Flauros-----
Well, this has been pretty anti-climactic so far. Riser clearly didn't want to try and make his way across the savannah on foot due to it being flooded, and didn't want to risk trying to fly over it in case we tried to snipe him and his harem out of the sky.
Turtling up and forcing us to make the first move would be a decent plan, against anyone other than me. The problem with summoners? You never give them time to prepare, especially not if they're necromancers. Otherwise, you get an undead army knocking on your front gate.
Initially, I expected him to send out Yubelluna to blast all of the undead, but he seems to have determined that she'd just be wasting mana on dealing with completely disposable chaff. Well, he is a Rating Game veteran.
It only makes sense that he isn't a complete dumbass when it comes to fighting. Even if most of his strategy usually boils down to face-tanking attacks and demolishing his enemies while relying on his Immortality to coast by.
I guess he felt that that would be in poor form? I don't know. But anyways, I had a few ideas for what I could've done.
With enough time, Jin and Luvia could've tunneled a path under the marsh and dug a hole straight into Riser's keep and I could flood the area with Bone Colossi and Dragon Priests, but that sounded kind of cheap and I wanted the girls to have some fun.
So, I let Jin take care of Ravel, while Chloe and Hildegard take on whoever. Looks like they decided to go for Knight vs. Knight. Those poor suckers don't stand a chance. Neither Chloe nor Hildegard's taking their respective fights seriously after all.
Hildegard's not using her trademark Ice Swords, nor is Chloe using her Gae Bulg or Rune Magic. They're both using more mundane weapons.
Luvia apparently didn't feel like getting into a magical brawl with the other Bishop whose name escapes me since she just fucking sniped her ass from downtown, then promptly teleported back here to take a nap.
Meanwhile, Cain is busy getting lessons on how to be a better maid from Anneliese, so neither of them are overly invested in the prospect of fighting. Jack's off with Hanzo and Arata waiting to ambush anyone who enters the forest, Tamamo and Yanagimoto are busy training. Well, Tamamo's taking the time to train to recover her strength faster and Yanagimoto's helping her with that.
Violet's laid out on a couch, completely uninterested in what's going on. All that really leaves is Kobayashi and Gloria, who I've ordered to hang back. Kobayashi may be decent at Kendo, but none of the remaining opponents would be suitable for her. Gloria is something of an ace in the hole.
Well, on second thought...
-----Riser Phenex-----
Just as I was preparing to start tossing fireballs to blow away the undead and try to forcibly dry the soil making it easier to cross the savannah, I see a number of skeletons laying down to form a bridge of bones. From out of the forest comes a single girl wearing a school uniform and wielding a katana.
She dashes across the bone bridge and leaps to an area near the remainder of my forces. "So, which of you is my opponent? Or do I get to fight all of you?"
Isabela then responds. "I don't know girly, there's just one of you and 10 of us. But if you really want to do this..." With that said, she and Xuelan assume fighting poses. Ile and Nel pull out their chainsaws. Ni and Li square up as well along with Marion, Burent, and Shuriya. But once Mira brandishes her staff, the purple-haired school girl then pauses and points her sword's tip at Mira.
"So you're the one I was told to fight! Come! Let us bathe in each other's blood! Give me the stimulation of battle! Ha!" She screams as she rushes at Mira. Oh great, she's a crazy bloodthirsty lunatic and Mira's technically the weakest member of my Peerage.
As the others prepare to back her up, the skeletons suddenly begin advancing again. Isabela and Xuelan are confronted by some of those bone giants while the rest of my Pawns are busy dealing with hordes of regular skeletal warriors.
Thankfully, as tough as those damn bone giants are, Isabela and Xuelan seem to be handling themselves quite well. The problem is that more of those giants are making their way over to join the fight. Not to mention that some of the skeletons appear to be disassembling themselves and piling up their bones into clusters that are then magically reconfigured into even more bone giants.
Since it's clear that Lilu's not committing any more of his Peerage to this battle, Yubelluna and I make our way towards Lilu's keep to put an end to this.
-----Hanzo----
Great. Just great. All of this prep work wasted because of crappy terrain generation making the Phenex Team unwilling to cross the marsh. Oh well, it's nice getting to be a teacher for Jack and Arata. I know that the Taimanin division of the Church had some experience in Ninjutsu, but they really need some serious training. It's pretty clear that the Church doesn't take them seriously at all given their response to the incident that led to Arata joining the Peerage.
Maybe I should talk to Master about recruiting the remainder of the Taimanin? I suspect that with some proper training and support, they could become quite the formidable force in their own right. It doesn't hurt that they're all easy on the eyes either, so that should make the talks easier.
As for Jack? The poor thing's got some serious issues. She's been doing much better as of late, I feel that moving into the Flauros Estate has been good for her mental health. Then again, considering that she always slept better after spending the night immersed in Lord Flauros's aura, an aura that now extends over the entire Estate thanks to being tied to the Wards, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that her mental state's been better.
I've wanted to be a mother for a long time and have a great deal of love for children. So thinking about what happened with Jack truly infuriates me on a visceral level. I hope that we succeed in finding Jack's mother one day so that I can give her a piece of my mind. If Jack doesn't kill her, I just might.
But there's no point thinking about that now. This Game's almost over. After all, Io is the final barrier standing between them and Master. And I've never seen Io lose a fight to anyone except Master.